Transgender Trailblazer Sarah McBride Heads to her Debut in Congress, Hoping for a Touch of Grace

It was her last day in session as a Delaware state senator, and Sarah McBride sat in her tiny office at the state Capitol, preparing farewell remarks.

She had made history here, as the first openly transgender state senator in the country. Now she was making history again, recently elected as the first openly transgender member of Congress.

Her political promotion has come during a reckoning for transgender rights, when legislation in Republican-governed states around the country aims to curb their advance. During an election where a deluge of campaign ads and politicians demeaned trans people, McBride still easily won her blue state's only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

But even before she is sworn in on Friday, her reception from congressional Republicans has been tumultuous. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina targeted her by proposing to ban transgender people from U.S. Capitol restrooms that correspond to their gender identity – a ban that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., enacted.

For her part, McBride tried to defuse the situation, saying she would follow the rules. "I'm not here to fight about bathrooms," the 34-year-old wrote in a statement.

While some activists want her to fight harder, to those who know her, the move was classic Sarah – a pragmatist with a reputation of bipartisanship, a person who values diplomacy over pugilism.

"There is so much joy and so much awe in having this opportunity, and I will not let anyone take that away from me," McBride told The Associated Press. "I am simply there to do the job just like anyone else."

Her political home of the last four years, the Delaware Senate, is small – just 21 members – much like the state itself, not even 100 miles (155 kilometers) from north to south. That proximity creates the kind of collegiality that, while not constant, is often lacking these days in Washington.

"We're a family," said state Sen. Brian Pettyjohn, a Republican colleague who walked over to hug McBride. "We're going to disagree on a lot of things, but we don't have the vitriol."

In the Delaware chamber, there were last-minute nominees to confirm, and mundane business to finish during the Dec. 16 special session.

In between votes, McBride sat on her office's burgundy couch, typing on her laptop. A staffer went through papers on her desk. The next day they would remove art from the walls and pack up prized mementos: a wedding photo with McBride's late husband; a letter from former President Barack Obama; a photograph with the most famous Delaware politician, President Joe Biden.

Back down the hall, on the state Senate floor, McBride's colleagues in the general assembly sent her off like the popular classmate at graduation. She opened the day with a prayer about "new beginnings and bittersweet endings."

She ended with a speech of gratitude for her fellow state lawmakers.

"I take with me the hope that I have found here that despite the rancor and the toxicity that we too often see in our politics, that we do genuinely have more in common than what divides us," McBride said.

She continued, "We can have a politics of grace and not of grandstanding, a politics of progress, not pettiness."